Okonkwo A Tragic Hero English Literature Essay

Okonkwo is the antithesis to his male parent, for his male parent Unoka is a rotter, who was in debt to everyone else in the kin, more or less. In the beginning of the book Chinua Achebe clearly states what Unoka is like, “ In his twenty-four hours he was lazy and improvident and was rather incapable of believing about tomorrow. ” ( C. Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Page 8 ) . Okonkwo on the other manus is known for his activities as a grappler and a warrior. At a party a adult male called him the greatest warrior and grappler alive, a far call from his male parent who abhorred combat and blood and felt that through being lazy and music he could hold a good life. Achebe clearly states how Okonkwo is in the undermentioned statements, “ Okonkwo was clearly cut out for great things. He was still immature but had won fame as the greatest grappler in the nine small towns. ” ( C. Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Page 11 ) .

Okonkwo is non a tragic hero simply due to his upbringing from really small and became such an of import adult male in his society at such a stamp immature age. No, Okonkwo is chiefly a tragic hero because of all of the hardship he faces after he kills Ikemefuna. For a character to be classified as a true tragic hero they must fall from a high topographic point because of a mistake of theirs. For Okonkwo this mistake was his pride and violent nature in congruency with each other to give an result where he was no longer looked upon by society with a favourable oculus. Okonkwo ‘s narrative is one of loss and grief, one of high hopes and calamity, one of success and failure.

One of the most memorable tragic heroes of all clip is a character known merely as Macbeth. Macbeth additions and loses everything over his greed and lecherousness for more and more power in a universe which is already self-satisfied with its leaders. The congruencies between Okonkwo and Macbeth are reeling. In the beginning both are known as great work forces in their states or kins, both are great warriors, and both have two rubrics given to them by a higher functionary or male monarch. Both live a life of somewhat comfort and both have alone married womans. Macbeth ‘s married woman is the 1 who pushes him over the deep terminal to go male monarch, whilst Okonkwo ‘s married woman bears him a great kid, and he wishes for her to come from a household of wealth, and so Okonkwo besides strives for greater things due to a household member.

Okonkwo is finally, due an accident, banished into expatriate for seven old ages to his female parent ‘s fatherland. He plots his return to Umuofia every individual twenty-four hours while he is at that place. These programs nevertheless do non travel as planned and he finally collapses on himself and his ain aspirations. Although Okonkwo is a proud warrior and grappler, his ain pride stops him from accepting the white people and going a Godhead of his kin, an aspiration he has held in his head for rather some clip and it runs his full life. This state of affairs clearly shows that an outside event has stopped him from accomplishing what he has strived for all his life so he kills himself, a black act in the eyes of the Umuofian people. In the undermentioned sentence Obierka, a friend of Okonkwo ‘s, voices his sentiment of why Okonkwo died, “ ” That adult male was one of the greatest work forces in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself ; and now he will be buried like a Canis familiaris. . . . ” ” ( C. Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Page 191 ) .

Okonkwo, a adult male of rubric and celebrity in his kin, dies because of an outside influence. This fact entirely classifies him as a tragic character, yet there is much more of his narrative that exemplifies a true tragic hero. He starts out from really small and works his manner up to a high place among his people, which finally set him up for his ruin and eventual self-destruction. Once at the top he commits an act that was warned against by a adult male who was much higher than him in rank, this constitutes his get downing into the downward spiral that would finally claim his life. At the terminal of his spiral it seems he is being revived back to his old ego when he kills the tribunal courier, but that turns out to be the nail in the casket and sends him to his grave. He was in disgust at his fellow people that would non even respond when the Whites told them to discontinue and abstain during a public meeting. All of this information constitutes the statement that Okonkwo is a tragic hero.

The chief ground for Okonkwo to travel off the deep terminal and take his ain life in the complacence of the people he originates from and the sum of alteration they have allowed. The people of Umuofia heard narratives of white work forces but ne’er thought they were existent, and when they came they laughed and gave them purportedly cursed land. These gestures finally lead to the ruin of their people as a whole and the colonisation of their folk and the 1s around it. Finally in the seven old ages Okonkwo was gone they became complacent with their life with the white people and even allowed them to construct a school, a infirmary, and even set up a signifier of authorities. These Acts of the Apostless to Okonkwo were unacceptable and he was of class the first to move in his new war against the white people and their manner of life. He resented how his ain boy had thrown in his batch with them and so they take over his small town. When the work forces of Umuofia gathered for a meeting the tribunal couriers came and tried to scatter them, this failed and Okonkwo killed the 1 who was taking the remainder. But to his great desperation the remainder of his people did non follow his illustration and the other four tribunal couriers got off.

The narrative of Okonkwo is sad in its calamity and it sends us a serious message through the colonisation of the folks and the uprooting of their ways of life. Okonkwo tried really difficult to convey felicity and a good work moral principle to his household but in the terminal all he could convey was sadness and disenchantment at the act he commit. Okonkwo may hold hit his married womans and crush his kids and alienated his eldest boy by killing his best friend and, reasonably much, adopted brother but he besides brought a really conservative mentality to things. He played by all the regulations his male parent did non, he struggled in life to acquire to where he ended up in the terminal, and for what, he died in the terminal because of a oppressive society suppressing their manner of life and their faith. Is at that place anything more tragic than making for the stars and acquiring shot down by person else because of their selfish aspirations?

In decision Okonkwo is a tragic hero because he was a adult male of stature in his society and he fell from a high topographic point because of his pride and violent nature. Okonkwo is non so different from many other tragic heroes from dramas and books past, such as Macbeth. Both characters achieved much in their lives but a distressingly obvious defect in them caused them to fall to nothingness and decease. Okonkwo committed suicide because he could non stand to see his small town in the shambles he came back to see it in and because his ain pride would non let him to run off or let himself to be taken by the white people to their base-of-operations to be hung. In gaol Okonkwo received cicatrixs from the tribunal couriers crushing him, and non even his pride allowed him to revenge more than killing one adult male. Okonkwo is genuinely a tragic hero and his narrative is one of unhappiness and of loss.